HGCosmic Era

ZGMF-2025/F Gelgoog Menace (Standard Colors)

The Zaku successor gets its space legs, and it moves better than a grunt suit has any right to.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Gelgoog Menace (Standard Colors) · 1/144 · 2024

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2024

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is one of the better grunt-suit HGs Bandai has put out in years, and the Standard Colors release is the version I'd point most people toward over the Lunamaria custom.

The SEED Action System joints genuinely deliver, the space pack wings pose beautifully, and the parts are molded in the actual ZAFT trooper colors so you're not fighting the palette with paint. The one real tax you pay is the backpack stickers, which is a shame on a kit that nails almost everything else.

Best for: HG builders who want a display-worthy grunt suit with real articulation and don't mind a sticker session on the wings

The full review

What it is

The Gelgoog Menace is ZAFT's next-generation successor to the Zaku Warrior, and this Standard Colors release swaps Lunamaria Hawke's personal color scheme for the plain trooper grey and red you'd actually see fielded in a squad. It comes with the space-optimized B.O.L.E.L.O backpack instead of the atmospheric version, and those wings are not for show. I clipped this one together in an evening and kept finding new gimmicks. The waist is a double joint that lets the torso twist and bend further than I expected from a 1/144 grunt kit, and the shoulders push forward enough to nail the sniper-brace poses this suit is built around.

The catch

The backpack and wing assembly leans hard on stickers rather than molded color, and it's a wide surface area to cover, so straight out of the box the rear of the kit reads a little flatter than the front. A few builders online also flagged that the wing hinges feel like they want paint or a light seam-cleanup pass before you trust them in dynamic poses for years. Nub placement is otherwise clean and the plastic takes clippers well, but budget extra time for that backpack if you want it to match the rest of the kit's finish.

Who it's for

If you like Zaku-lineage suits and want a grunt kit that actually holds a pose instead of standing there stiffly, this is a strong pick, especially at the standard HG price point. It's also a nice pairing piece if you already have HGCE Destiny Gundam or similar kits, since the included X1 Prototype Advanced Railgun is sized to hand off between them. Skip it if you specifically want the Lunamaria Hawke color scheme, that's a separate release, or if sticker-heavy backpacks are a dealbreaker for you without a repaint.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

Gate placement is considerate and the plastic clips clean without much stress marking, and because the kit leans on larger body panels it feels sturdy in hand once assembled rather than fragile the way some smaller HGs can. The backpack is the one section that slows you down, both because of the sticker count and because the wing hinge parts are small and worth test-fitting before you commit them.

The double-jointed waist and shoulders are the standout engineering here, letting the suit bend and lean in ways that sell the sniper-support role this design is built for in the show. The space pack wings swing and angle independently for dynamic silhouettes, and the bundled X1 Prototype Advanced Railgun is a nice value-add since it's cut to also fit other HGCE 1/144 kits like Destiny Gundam, giving you a reason to keep it even if you build a squad of these.

Lore & trivia

01The Gelgoog Menace is ZAFT's designated successor to the ZGMF-1000 Zaku Warrior, sharing common components with its sister unit the ZGMF-2027/A Gyan Strom to cut down on maintenance costs.
02Its design is a direct homage to the original MS-14A Gelgoog from Mobile Suit Gundam, right down to the name.
03In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, Gelgoog Menace units piloted by Black Tri-Stars members Mars Simeon and Herbert Von Reinhardt were overwhelmed by the Kingdom of Foundation's Black Knight Squad during the betrayal at the joint anti-Blue Cosmos operation.
04This Standard Colors HG shares its molds with the Lunamaria Hawke custom release but swaps her personal atmospheric pack for the space-optimized B.O.L.E.L.O backpack with movable wings.